Some Angels Have Rotor Blades by Darcy Guyant

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Author's Synopsis

When Dale's plans for a fun day on the water turn into a struggle for survival, he is left clinging to his overturned boat, hope dwindling with each passing minute. Just as his strength begins to fade, a Coast Guard helicopter unexpectedly appears on the scene, its crew risking their lives to pluck him from the frigid water.

Fast-forward forty years, and Dale's world comes full circle. While exploring a museum with his grandkids, he stumbles upon the helicopter that once saved him!

This remarkable tale weaves together themes of survival, heartfelt gratitude, and the lasting impact of the rescuer’s bravery. It's a poignant reminder of how courage and compassion can transform lives in unimaginable ways.

Perfect for parents and educators, this inspiring narrative showcases the profound influence of one person's actions on another's destiny. This story powerfully illustrates that even the most minor acts of kindness can create ripples that echo through generations, potentially shaping the future and sparking inspiration.

Format(s) for review: Paper Only

Review Genre: Children & Young Adult—Picture Book

Number of Pages: 38

Word Count: 911

Maryland Sasquatch Massacre by Ethan Richards

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Author's Synopsis

Maryland. Mercenaries. Sasquatch.

Ebenezer "Eerie Eb" Edwards is ready to hang up his rifle. After years in the military and security contracting, he's set on leaving his tactical profession behind and focusing full-time on podcasting. But when a lucrative final contract crosses his path, Eb agrees to one last mission—a search deep into the heart of Savage River State Forest for the missing sister of Cora Rhodes, a wealthy heiress with a fierce determination.

Cora's sister has disappeared into the remote, abandoned forest, and Cora will stop at nothing to find her. With Eb leading the way, they're joined by a band of mercenaries—each with their own specialties and reasons for taking on the job. Together, the team must navigate treacherous terrain, but it's not just the wilderness they have to survive. Something brutal and ancient lurks in the shadows—something far worse than they could have imagined.

This isn't just a search-and-rescue mission. It's a battle for survival against a creature long thought to be myth. As the team members fall one by one, Eb and Cora must rely on each other, pushing their limits as they confront a force of nature no one was prepared for.

In this action-packed thriller, will Eb's final mission be the one that costs him everything? Or will he and Cora survive The Maryland Sasquatch Massacre and uncover the truth about the horrors lurking in the forest?

Format(s) for review: Paper and Kindle

Review Genre: Please select your desired review genre

Number of Pages: 162

Word Count: 43217

Until Our Time Comes: A Novel of WWII Poland by Nicole M. Miller

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Author's Synopsis

American horse trainer Adia Kensington is living her dream of working at the famous Janów Podlaski stables in Poland, where they breed the best Arabian horses in the world. But her plans to bring the priceless stallion Lubor to the US are derailed when the German army storms into her adopted country in 1939. Little does she know this is just the beginning of six long years of occupation that will threaten her beloved horses at every turn.

Bret Conway is at Janów Podlaski under the guise of a news reporter, but his true mission is intelligence gathering for the British. That and keeping Adia safe, which is harder and harder to do as she insists they must evacuate 250 horses to save them from being stolen, sold, or eaten by the invading forces. What follows will test their physical, mental, and emotional strength, as well as their faith in God, humankind, and each other.

Drawn from true events of World War II, this epic story of escape, capture, resistance, and love from debut novelist Nicole M. Miller will thunder into your heart like a herd of beautiful horses across a raging river.

Format(s) for review: Paper and Kindle

Review Genre: Fiction—Historical Fiction

Number of Pages: 372

Word Count: 95,000

Degrees of Intelligence by Miranda Armstadt

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Author's Synopsis

A Gripping New Historical Fiction Geopolitical Thriller of WWII and the Cold War:

It’s 1943 … World War II is raging across the pond … and a shy but brilliant Jewish-American young man—whose own father grew up on the mean streets of Manhattan’s Lower East Side—finds himself at Harvard … with no clue how he got in.

Miranda Armstadt’s new historical fiction geopolitical thriller—inspired by her own father’s time with the US State Department in 1950s Cold War Europe—takes readers behind the scenes of the early years of the CIA and how it unfolded into a powerful government arm, as America pushed back against Communism after the war.

Along the way, we meet the beautiful daughter of a TV news pioneer, caught up in a web of deceit her own family doesn't know about … a dashing British viscount who steps out of the world of wealth and prestige in which he was raised … and a teenage Holocaust survivor who’s determined to succeed, despite losing his entire family to the Nazis.

Five years in the making, Armstadt has used volumes of family letters and photographs—and researched hundreds of CIA, State Department, and government and military memos—to create a fascinating story about how high-level intelligence operatives were scouted, trained and used to glean information in a world before computers.

With incredible insight into the real life of a Foreign Service officer, Armstadt weaves a vivid tableau of America and Britain’s intelligence operations from World War II through to the Kennedy administration of the 1960s and their aftermath—and how a life of secrecy affects everyone it touches.

Format(s) for review: Paper and Kindle

Review Genre: Fiction—Historical Fiction

Number of Pages: 350

Word Count: Approx. 93,000

The Spear and the Sentinel by J. L. Hancock

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Author's Synopsis

Voodoo and his team of special operators are thrust into the heart of a global conflict. The stakes have never been higher as China’s Belt and Road Initiative pushes into Central Asia, exposing dark ambitions and a secret lab advancing AI warfare.

Set against the vast steppes of Kazakhstan, this story unfolds in the shadow of the former Soviet Union. Tensions rise as Voodoo’s team embarks on a covert mission. New team members add to the friction as more troubles from Voodoo’s past return to the present.

They soon find themselves on the brink of a perilous future the Western world is unwilling to face: a world where AI reigns supreme, and there's no turning back. Fans of Jack Ryan, Tom Clancy, and Clive Cussler will snatch this thriller and refuse to let go.

Will Voodoo’s team succeed? Or has his luck finally run out?

Format(s) for review: Paper and Kindle

Review Genre: Please select your desired review genre

Number of Pages: 340

Word Count: 80,000

Distant Dreams - Standby At Tay Ninh by Randy Millican

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Author's Synopsis

In those frightening minutes after being wounded in combat, the soldiers were expertly attended by the company medics, and a helicopter evacuation was called in. That call went out to the DUSTOFF crews. Racing to the coordinates of the unit requesting help, the helicopter crew locates the troops by the colored smoke marker, then swoops in for the pick-up, most often under withering enemy fire. The bright red crosses painted on the unarmed ship offer a beacon of hope to the wounded as well as a point of aim for enemy gunners. The pilots skillfully settle the helicopter into an area that without the emergency nature of the call would never be considered as a landing zone.

Once on the ground, the medic leaves the helicopter and races toward the wounded-gathering them up and delivering them to the waiting crew chief who helps them aboard while watching for enemy soldiers and hazards to the aircraft. Only when the last wounded man is aboard do the pilots lift-off, fighting the unforgiving force of gravity, desperate for the altitude necessary to avoid the dense jungle foliage and trees.

Assisted by the crew chief, the medic attends to the wounded: slowing the life draining flow of blood and replacing IV fluids, performing airway preserving maneuvers, and too often, CPR. As the pilots expertly coax the helicopter beyond its limits for speed, triage is performed while enroute and the most appropriate medical facility is selected. The wounded are finally handed off to the doctors and nurses for surgery and more definitive care.

This was the scenario replayed hundreds of thousands of times during the Vietnam War. The DUSTOFF crews were few, and the missions were many. Each one was carried out with skill, bravery and dedication to the mission—Saving Lives.

This is the story of a medic who flew those missions.

Format(s) for review: Paper Only

Review Genre: Fiction—Historical Fiction

Number of Pages: 485

Word Count: 51,673

Crucible 1972: The War for Peace in Vietnam by J. Keith Saliba

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Author's Synopsis

By early 1972, America’s long struggle in Vietnam was nearing its end. President Richard Nixon’s policy of “Vietnamization” had seen U.S. troop strength plummet to its lowest since 1965, even as military planners ramped up efforts to train and equip South Vietnam to stand alone. In an effort to kickstart peace negotiations, Nixon that January revealed that for more than two years his administration had been in secret talks with North Vietnam to end the war. Nixon proposed a withdrawal of all foreign military forces from South Vietnam and the release of prisoners held by all sides. After which, the president intoned, the people of South Vietnam would be free to decide their own fate through peaceful, democratic means. All that remained was North Vietnam’s acceptance. But Hanoi said no. General Secretary Le Duan, seeing that the United States was already on its way out and calculating that Vietnamization had failed, decided war not peace would bring final victory.

And so on 30 March 1972, the first terrible wave of 30,000 North Vietnamese infantrymen, armor, and heavy artillery rolled across the DMZ separating North and South Vietnam. Within a month, that number would grow to more than 225,000 troops and hundreds of tanks pressing South Vietnam on three battlefronts. But what Le Duan did not calculate was the ferocity of the U.S. response. American airpower—now unshackled by a president determined to win an “honorable peace” in Vietnam—would rain destruction unlike anything the North Vietnamese had experienced. Before it was over, Washington, Hanoi, and Saigon would be pushed to the brink—and toward a deeply flawed peace that merely sowed the seeds of further war. Drawing on archival research and interviews with veterans who were there, J. Keith Saliba tells the tale of America’s last fateful year in Vietnam…and its desperate attempt to achieve an honorable peace.

Format(s) for review: Paper and Kindle

Review Genre: Nonfiction—History

Number of Pages: 444

Word Count: 95,000

SAMs and Night Carrier Landings by Roland McLean

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Author's Synopsis

On Yankee Station, some 110 miles east of Dong Hoi, NorthVietnam

Latitude1730North,10830East

3 March, 1967

Somewhere below, in the darkness, the giant old warship thundered along, firing into the dark night its lethal payload of fighters and dive-bombers. In calm seas, it churned at more than thirty knots, making its own wind to help the flight of the planes off the twin catapults mounted on the bow. Phosphorescence glowed white in its wake. Old boilers were pushed to the maximum to drive four massive propellers.

The third combat deployment of Navy Fighter Squadron VF 188 to Yankee Station and the raging air war over North Vietnam. The young replacement pilots known as nuggets are forced to quickly adapt to flying in the most deadly anti-aircraft environment ever known.

Format(s) for review: Paper and Kindle

Review Genre: Fiction—Historical Fiction

Number of Pages: 251

Word Count: 83,454

Persons of Interest by Mark Fleisher

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Author's Synopsis

Persons of Interest is a law enforcement term to describe someone who is involved in an incident, not yet a suspect but may become one. In Mark Fleisher’s work entitled Persons of Interest, he investigates, follows up clues and names names. Fleisher, who enjoys dabbling in the kitchen of his Albuquerque homecooks up a Baker’s Dozen each of poems and stories, fiction and nonfiction alike. The menu ranges from tales of his childhood, through college days and Air Force experiences to more contemporary times.

From a misbehaving car to a scary plane ride to his first paying job Fleisher weaves his way through wistful and humorous tales as well as portrayals of loss and grief, all reflecting the author’s ability to give readers a buffet of emotions. The poems found in Persons of Interest often relate directly or indirectly to the stories told.

Format(s) for review: Paper Only

Review Genre: Other—Anthology/Collection

Number of Pages: 115

Word Count: 22,000

Swift Boat Skipper by Robert H. Bradley III

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Author's Synopsis

This book is a memoir based on letters I wrote and the diary I kept in Vietnam.

I started writing in 1979 to counter the despicable depiction of the actions of sailors on Swift Boats and River Patrol Boats in the movie, Apocalypse Now. It was my attempt to tell about the Vietnam War that I knew while serving in DaNang in 1969-1970.

This book is a coming-of-age story of a callow college graduate whose service, first as an officer on the USS Savage (DER-386) and then as skipper of a Swift Boat turned a boy into a man.

Coastal Division 12 Swift Boats patrolled mostly along the coast, but one of our key missions in 1969 was the perilous patrols in the Cua Dai River Basin. Many men were wounded there in the firefights; one of our officers died.

The book recounts the great professionalism and courage of Swift Boat sailors but also the gradual disillusionment that many of us felt, as the Vietnamization of the War supplanted our original mission of winning the war.

Format(s) for review: Paper Only

Review Genre: Nonfiction—Memoir/Biography

Number of Pages: 338

Word Count: 162,000

Crow Wisdom: A Seasonal Journey by Wanda W. Jerome and Jasmine Tritten

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Author's Synopsis

Crows have symbolic meanings in many cultures. Incredibly smart, these birds carve a unique place between the natural and spiritual worlds. They fly into our lives and communicate important insights as harbingers of change to come. In homage to the family of corvids – especially crows – we compiled this collection of uplifting poetry, photography, and artwork to shed light on their unique contributions to our human experience here on earth. We hope you enjoy this book and crows find their way to you when you need them.

Format(s) for review: Paper only

Review Genre: Poetry—Poetry Book

Number of Pages: 137

Word Count: 6,385

The Bridge by George Encizo

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Author's Synopsis

Sheriff JD Pickens had never experienced such turmoil in his personal and business life as he did now. Whenever he thought he had the situation under control, something new would crop up. But Pickens forged on undaunted, yet the enormity of the conditions rolled over him like a giant bolder and threatened to crush him like a cockroach. Pickens felt like giving up, but he wasn’t one to surrender without a fight. The problem was whether Pickens could win.

Format(s) for review: Paper Only

Review Genre: Fiction—Mystery/Thriller/Crime

Number of Pages: 287

Word Count: 65,720

Cherry Blossoms in Winter: A Riveting Soldier's Story of the Korean War, Friendship, and Love in Post-War Japan by Michael J. Summers

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Author's Synopsis

In a world scarred by conflict, can the tender beauty of cherry blossoms withstand the winter of war?

Manila, Philippines, 2003.

Dane Chandler is on a writing assignment in Manila, where he meets Jack Pierce, a tough-talking Korean War Veteran. Their chance encounter leads Dane into Jack's past, beginning in 1949 Tokyo, where Jack, stationed at Camp Drake, meets Michiko Okura at Club Florida. Their budding romance is cut short by the outbreak of the Korean War, which transforms Jack amidst the brutal fight for "Rat Mountain."

As Dane listens to Jack's story, experiencing his hellish battlefield encounters and tremendous loss, he witnesses Jack's undaunted outlook on life and discovers newfound maturity in himself.

Cherry Blossoms in Winter is a masterful blend of historical fiction, multi-cultural romance, and military adventure, exploring the bonds of brotherhood, the harsh realities of war, and the enduring power of love, highlighting the unyielding strength of the human spirit.

Format(s) for review: Paper and Kindle

Review Genre: Fiction—Historical Fiction

Number of Pages: 259

Word Count: 82000

Pennies from Vietnam: A Sister at home, a Brother at war by Tracy Smith and Larry Smith (deceased)

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Author's Synopsis

“It didn’t matter that we were in New Jersey in 1967 and 1968. Vietnam invaded us all.”

In this family story, over 70 letters from one homesick soldier tell the truth and trauma of a teenager in combat. When Larry Smith enlisted, he promised to send pennies for his little sister Tracy in his letters, and promised his mother to return home safely. But as Tracy started kindergarten and learned of war from the family television, Larry turned 19, battles intensified and his letters darkened. His promises were harder to keep.

For 12 months as a 1st Cavalry Crew Chief during the height of the war, Larry writes home with tales from his latest mission on his Huey helicopter ("I never had a new car, but I do have a '67 UH-1C"). Larry grows from a naive boy ("War is hell but the girls over here sure are nice") into a hardened man. He is silenced by the end of his tour of duty, and letters stop arriving.

Decades after the war, as her brother lay in a coma, Tracy Smith began to study the old letters, and found a boy she didn’t recognize. After years of research and finding her brother’s Army friends, she is honoring him in this bittersweet story of love in the middle of war. Pennies from Vietnam: A Sister at Home, a Brother at War is a parallel memoir, offering a unique dual perspective. Larry speaks for every soldier, and Tracy speaks for those left behind, waiting for answers.

Pennies from Vietnam makes a case for generational trauma: children don’t belong in combat, nor should they watch it unfold on television.

Format(s) for review: Paper and Kindle

Review Genre: Nonfiction—Memoir/Biography

Number of Pages: 229

Word Count: 80,000

Best Year of Our Lives by Robert Lofthouse

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Author's Synopsis

Saucon Valley High School, a small school in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley, wasn't historically known as a football powerhouse. Having to rely on homegrown talent, they'd often lose out to bigger schools with larger recruiting bases. But 2015 would prove to be different. Digging deep and pounding out their final year as Saucon Valley Panthers, cocaptains Zach Thatcher, Evan Culver, Mike Kane, Christian Carvis and their teammates embarked on a quest for a Pennsylvania state football championship that would defy the odds. Fielding the school's best team in decades, Head Coach Matt Evancho brought a group of determined young men together for a journey none of them will every forget. With local roots but universal appeal, The Best Year of Our Lives uses recent interviews, personal stories, and media accounts from the time to paint the picture of everything the players, coaches and local community experienced that storied year - the unity, the disappointments and the triumphs.

Format(s) for review: Paper only

Review Genre: Nonfiction—History

Number of Pages: 228

Word Count: 58,859

Two Stitches and a Patch by Dr. Terry Megli and Robert Lofthouse

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Author's Synopsis

We are witnessing a crisis in the Christian community of unresolved grief and pain. Not acknowledging the truth of death holds us back from fully enjoying the divine gifts of hope and happiness. If anyone can model the ability to live with joy after life's struggles, it's Job. Two Stitches and a Patch builds on the seven movements of Job's restored happiness while filling in the pieces of the divine action physics that lead to life after death. Build confidence by leaning in and listening to those who are at the end of life, and reboot your life in the embrace of the changes that create a life well lived.

Format(s) for review: Paper and Kindle

Review Genre: Religious/Spiritual

Number of Pages: 109

Word Count: 25,304

The Master Chief's Sea Stories: Volume II Duty Ashore and USS Comte De Grasse (DD 974) by Johnny J Moye

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Author's Synopsis

Outstanding stories continue as Young Moye expertly communicates his extraordinary journey. Accompany him as he enjoys the freedom of shore duty, finding himself as a person and sailor. Assigned to one of the world’s most powerful warships, the USS Comte De Grasse, he faced the most difficult but amazing period of his life. Initially a meek person, he was forced to lead men and machine through the toughest situations he and his sailors had ever faced.

For millennia, sailors have told stories of the sea. Readers of Volume I (USS Manitowoc) witnessed how four years of arduous naval service transformed a simple boy from the hills into a sailor, communicator and leader.

Built on his journal-based autobiographical account, Moye skillfully articulates his continued transformation—and the transformation of those he led. Stories as only possible from someone who experienced such adventure and challenges.

Moye details significant events that prepared him for future advancement and challenges, both professional and personal. His daily journal entries aboard the Count identify events as they occurred, allowing him to accurately and honestly spin his yarns of adventures and hardships, some too incredible to believe. While experiencing the most amazing time of his life, he also endured days seemingly too difficult for him and his shipmates to bear. But bear they did. Prepare yourself for these amazing sea stories for they are no-shitters.

Format(s) for review: Paper and Kindle

Review Genre: Nonfiction—Memoir/Biography

Number of Pages: 670

Word Count: 245,000

The Master Chief's Sea Stories: Volume I USS Manitowoc (LST 1180) by Johnny J Moye

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Author's Synopsis

Everyone loves a good story…try a thousand! Master Chief Moye masterfully shares his memories of the events that inspired his transition from a timid boy from the hills of southern Indiana into a battle-ready Cold War sailor aboard one of the U.S. Navy’s most battle-efficient ships.

For millennia, sailors have told stories of the sea. Moye’s stories are an autobiographical account based on comprehensive journals he maintained while aboard the USS Manitowoc. This factual account details experiences ranging from tragic to euphoric…sometimes on the same day.

This recounting shares not only the master chief’s life but the lives of his shipmates, capturing an unmatched historical rendering of Navy life in a bygone era. This book is required reading for anyone interested in the Navy, personal growth, happiness, failure, and success. Those stories are all here.

This is the first of a series of books telling the Master Chief’s Sea Stories that detail his 27-year U.S. Navy career during a time when much was expected and accepted.

Hey—listen to this one, it’s a no-shitter.

Format(s) for review: Paper and Kindle

Review Genre: Nonfiction—Memoir/Biography

Number of Pages: 520

Word Count: 179223

Putin's Interpreter by Ward R. Anderson

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Author's Synopsis

Author's Synopsis: An alternate history of the election interference of 2020, Anderson's second literary fiction about Ukraine is a political thriller that mixes real world and fictional events. A writing style akin to Phillip Rucker, Anderson's protagonists, a retired U.S. Navy fighter pilot and a Foreign Service Officer, delve into secret meetings between Presidents Putin and Trump at summits, intent to learn of any duplicity by Trump regarding Ukraine. When Putin's longtime interpreter, Dmitri Petrov, hints at his defection, a plan is set in motion to convince candidate Biden, if elected, to approve Petrov's escape. Anderson takes us from Annapolis, Maryland to Washington D.C., to Moscow, and Latvia, where the CIA is to deliver Petrov. After hours of tension and disappointment, Petrov delivers a digital recording of Putin and Trump discussing how to undermine Ukraine. The revelations are so consequential that President Biden delivers an urgent letter for Senator Leahy to read before he calls for the Senate vote at Trump's second impeachment trial.

Format(s) for review: Paper and Kindle

Review Genre: Fiction—Historical Fiction

Number of Pages: 157

Word Count: 48,380

Issued: stories of service (issue two) by Rosemarie Dombrowski. PhD, Founding Editor of ISSUED: stories of service

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MWSA Review Pending

 

Author's Synopsis

Launched in May 2023 with sponsorship from the Office for Veteran and Military Academic Engagement at Arizona State University, ISSUED is an annual literary journal that showcases the stories of active-duty, veterans, and their family members—specifically, poetry and flash prose that expresses the spectrum of experiences within military life, including gender and sexuality, BIPOC voices, physical and mental health, combat, enlisting and separating, family and relationships, and reintegration into society.

Because we pride ourselves on both our national readership and community ethos, ISSUED also features profiles of veterans who are doing extraordinary work in their communities, whether it be through the arts, education, mental health, or advocacy. In other words, we’re a journal with a broad military-affiliated audience, not just a strictly literary one.

At ISSUED, we also believe in the healing power of narrative medicine, and according to studies, when veterans read or write about service, they have better health outcomes. Thus, we hope that ISSUED will serve as a resource for veterans’ writing circles, discussion groups, treks, etc., i.e. be used to facilitate a heathier veteran community.

Format(s) for review: Paper Only

Review Genre: Other—Anthology/Collection

Number of Pages: 114

Word Count: 21120

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